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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The pay gap between higher- and lower-performing employees is growing, with employers focusing constrained budgets on top employees, according to a survey analysis released Wednesday by Mercer, a human-resources consulting firm.

Top-performing workers received average base-pay increases of 4.4% this year, compared with 2.8% for average performers, and 0.4% for the lowest performers, according to Mercer. The data are based on responses from more than 1,200 mid-size and large employers in the U.S.

“Differentiating salary increases based on performance has become a necessity with limited resources. In this less-than-robust environment, top-performing employees are an employers’ competitive weapon and they are doing their best to reward them accordingly,” said Catherine Hartmann, a rewards consulting business principal at Mercer, in a statement.

Looking forward, Mercer said the average increase in base pay is forecast to be 3% in 2012, compared with 2.9% in 2011, and 2.7% in 2010.

Mercer also said that 69% of employers are “working to increase differentiation of pay based on performance.” This finding is based on a smaller group of mid-size and large employers. Read more about companies basing pay on performance.

“Distinguishing pay based on performance is an effective way for employers to assess workforce needs and invest in those employees that will advance the organization,” Hartmann said. “And by doing so, they’re establishing higher expectations for top performance — essentially, a new standard for their employees.”
Wage growth is on hold — for some

Some economists said they’re concerned about stagnating wages for the nation’s workers.

“The wage growth of ‘high performers’ is irrelevant for most workers, since they’re not in bonus or merit systems,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank.

“For them, wage growth has been dismal and the outlook is not favorable, either, given that unemployment will remain high,” he said.

Between 1979 and 2009, productivity gained 80%, far outpacing growth of 10.1% for hourly wages for median workers, according to EPI.

“In America today, wages are hardly growing at all,” Mishel said. “The last 30 years have not been good for wage growth, especially for men. With a scarcity of good jobs, especially good jobs with benefits and security, and with fewer and weaker unions, employers have the upper hand.”

Some workers have fared better than others. Between 1989 and 2010, real wages for private-sector workers with a college degree rose 19.4%, compared with a 4.8% increase for those with solely a high-school education, according to EPI.

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Asked where he was for the last few days, PM Wen answered that he was sick and was order to be in bed by the doctor for the last 11 days. Yet the internet soon found pictures of him receiving foreign visitors and presiding meetings in news reports.

He answer 7 questions, only 3 of those come from Mainland China media, 2 of them from the party media (CCTV and People's daily, one other from a local media who asked an ass-kissing meaningless question). One answer to a japanese journalist has nothing to do with the question, and the rest are devoid of much substance too.

After the short interview, the unsatisfied journalists chanted "Railway Bureau answer questions" , while Wen and his fellow officials took a look at the journalists and walked away.

"According to a declassified 2005 report released last week, China had been
testing the effects of an electromagnetic pulse attack–the detonation of a nuclear
device at high altitude to maximize the area affected by the EMP–possibly meant
for Taiwan."

Killeen police arrested without incident 21-year-old Pfc. Nasser Jason Abdo on Wednesday after being alerted by "concerned citizens," and agents found firearms and "items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder," in his motel room, said FBI spokesman Erik Vasys.

Also, if you saw today's 10 O'clock news, it's clear that someone in the BBC is an Anime fan, as all the links they showed were Anime!

So otaku are the NWO after Murdoch? Well THAT I don't mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Lies, more lies.

Asked where he was for the last few days, PM Wen answered that he was sick and was order to be in bed by the doctor for the last 11 days. Yet the internet soon found pictures of him receiving foreign visitors and presiding meetings in news reports.

He answer 7 questions, only 3 of those come from Mainland China media, 2 of them from the party media (CCTV and People's daily, one other from a local media who asked an ass-kissing meaningless question). One answer to a japanese journalist has nothing to do with the question, and the rest are devoid of much substance too.

After the short interview, the unsatisfied journalists chanted "Railway Bureau answer questions" , while Wen and his fellow officials took a look at the journalists and walked away.

Very soon, the CCCP will ban Jay Chou's Qi Li Xiang (Common Jasmine Orange) from being aired in China and the SARs. *sarcastic*

It is only a matter of time before the jasmine in China mutate into river crab-eating venus flytraps. I don't think this matter will blow over as easily as last time's.

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Were we not all seething at Washington's huge favoring of Wall Street like 6 months before.

While the conversation of austerity vs preserving aid is a legitamite one, I can't help but think we're missing some larger point here............

From an academic observer viewpoint, it's really amazing how much power the Tea Party has wrangled over this debate. This anti incumbent mentality is something like I have never seen. Can someone point out what districts they come from? Because I fail to see how severe budget balancing will do well for their constituents in the short run (during their candidacies) if certain programs are cut.

Also compare the relative quiet compared to when big time bills like this one were passed in Europe (although, the situation in the Eurozone and here are somewhat distinct).

My own personal take;

Also it's not that I think the Tea Party is downright "EVILLL" like some would believe. It's just that I don't under stand their crazy idea that we are going all Europe style "socialist". Like the closing of tax loopholes and tax brakes? Plus in this country once you loose a certain program that needs tax revenue to fund, it gets VERY VERY VERY hard to bring back.

I know Medicare, Medicaid and certain aid programs need to be cut, but I fear out and out dismantaling of many programs that will just hammer the poor and disenfranchised in a disequitable way will come from a very republican congress.

"These large business groups may have helped Israel's economy when it was younger, but it's now a developed market, and it will be hard to keep up the current rate of growth in this situation," said one official familiar with the deliberations. "The committee members are aware of this. Breaking them up will help competition and growth."

The tea party is the worst thing that ever happened to the US. I knew that those guys were trouble once I saw how fox news was going out of their way to promote them as soon as Obama got elected. Now that that scum is in house how in the world is the US government to function?

Now that the Boehner was forced to include more extreme tea party policy in his bill in order to get the house bill to pass, how in the world does he expect that thing to get signed by the president?

Quote:

Apple holding more cash than USA

What?

Rising wage inequality linked to falling union numbers

You have to thank the tea party and their overlords for the tax breaks to big corporations and the Anti union policies. Granted, I truly think that apple deserves to be so wealthy, after all they have come up with very popular devices, so even if the tax breaks help them it is not the reason why they are so successful.

Ronald Reagan really did screw up this country when he defined defined the political spectrum as government being part of the problem and not the solution...

We already knew that the debacle also involved the FBI and the DEA (both part of DoJ), but Newell also revealed that even more agencies were part of the program, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Homeland Security) and the IRS.

Yes I can, the tea party does not want any tax increases whatsoever, even if the Bush of tax cuts created half of the deficit we find ourselves in right now, they still used the debt ceiling as hostage to blackmail the government into passing more tax cuts in exchange for their vote.

Quote:

There is an old fashioned buisness first contingent in the Republican party that hasn't changed throughout the years.

This republican party is completely different from 40 years ago. This party is much more ideological and individualistic. Again, you have Reagan to thank for shifting the country's ideology to the extreme right.

The really pathetic aspect of the Tea Party is that many of the ragers and followers are cutting their own throats and the throats of their family, their parents, their kids, the communities they live in. They're driving towards an end-game that looks like the squalor in Monty Python's Holy Grail but without the "funny".

The Koch Brothers and the other plutocrats laugh at these peasants all the way to the bank from their gated community via private jets escorted by personal bodyguards - totally disconnected from Main Street or really even the US.
(Hint: if you make less than a million a year - you're a peasant, you don't even qualify to be in the country club)